SUPER League champions Leeds turned on the style to romp to their biggest-ever win at Wigan but coach Tony Smith admitted the Warriors made them work hard for the spoils.

The Rhinos were only 16-14 in front after an hour but scored four tries in the final quarter to run out 38-14 winners in front of a 16,022 crowd at the JJB Stadium.

"I thought we were very, very good but we had to be," said Smith.

"They made it very difficult for in the first half. I thought they were tenacious and took some breaking down.

"We came up with two blemishes in the first half which were punished but, other aside from that, I thought we were pretty good defensively."

Two first-half tries from barnstorming centre Keith Senior, which took him clear of the Super League scoring chart on 11, gave the Rhinos a 16-12 interval lead.

Botham

Wigan cut the gap to just two points with a penalty after 57 minutes but they failed to re-gather the kick-off and, from the perfect attacking position, Leeds substitute Liam Botham scored only his second try for the club to break the deadlock.

Smith described Wigan's decision to kick the two points as the turning point and his opposite number Denis Betts admitted he may have made a mistake.

"It was my call but hindsight is a wonderful thing," he said. "I felt we had been under a lot of pressure and maybe the goal would have given us a bit of a break.

"I had no idea they weren't going to catch the ball from the kick-off."

Marcus Bai and Ali Lauitiiti piled on the agony for Wigan with further tries before winger Mark Calderwood complted the rout with the 100th try of his career.

"The scoreline was pretty disappointing," added Betts.

"We dropped too much ball in the seconnd half and Leeds got on a bit of a roll. We stopped playing."